Poetic Faiths: New Religions and Rituals as Works of Living Art is an anthology of illustrated interviews with an emergent counterculture of artists and activists who take secular humanism as a given, then ask, “Now what?” and find their answers in artistic creation. Poetic Faiths embody soulful practice through ritual participation in mythopoetic art; they are ways of taking as profound that which may not be taken literally.
Volume I includes: Aretéanism – a ritualistic path toward personal and communal excellence, inspired by ancient Greek philosophy CREATION – a queer, science-fiction-infused religious response to climate change, mourning the Anthropocene The First Church of David Bowie, Phonomancer – a psychedelic blend of role-playing, music and personal development The Orphan Wisdom School – a redemptive practice rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry and working for a time that we won’t live to see The Mysterium – an immersive experience of Deep Play guided by ‘memento mori ergo carpe diem’—remember death, therefore seize the day
With a foreword by Professor Carole Cusack and the provocative Cultpunk Manifesto, this collection explores the dynamic intersection of ceremony, art and philosophy in the search for metamodern meaning.